Carol City church of Christ16900NW22Ave. Miami Gardens, Florida 33056

Subtitle

Charles Knight who preaches for the Central church of Christ in New Smyrna Beach, Florida was with the Carol City church and presented to us a wonderful series of lessons on "STIRRING UP ZEAL" Here are some of the lessons.

ZEAL:

FINDING YOUR STARTING POINT

Snapshots Of A Lukewarm Christian

1) Love God but not first. Lukewarm Christians assume only
“extreme” Christians seek God first in 100 percent of their choices. Logically,
they know God comes first, but practically speaking, they don’t consistently
place Him there (Matt. 6:24, 33, 22:37-38).

2) Believe religion is a good and important thing to have in life but
think it should not consume them. Just enough religion to ease their
consciences and stay out of trouble suits them fine (2
Tim. 3:1-5).

3) Loves
others
in theory but
in
practice,
do
very
little
for strangers or outcasts.

a) Doing good
for others is confined to their friends or a few convenient opportunities that requires
little sacrifice.

b) Sometimes they even do
good deeds to improve their reputation—not God’s.

c) They do
not love their neighbors to the extent they love themselves (Matt. 22:39-40).

4)Have good
intentions to participate in good deeds someday, but they don’t redeem their
time or resources and take action (Eph. 5:15-16).

5) Enjoy
hearing stories about people who live zealously for God, but the stories never
inspire real change and greater zeal in their own lives.The
stories meant to inspire action are treated like pleasant entertainment (Jas.
1:21-27, Heb. 12:1-6).

6) Are often
silent about their faith.They set a reasonably good example but
rarely share the good news in direct and meaningful conversations. They've become somewhat ashamed to do so (Rom. 1:16).

7) Settle into
a one-sided religion. They define Christianity in either very
personal terms or very doctrinal terms, but they don’t integrate
personal
faith with sound doctrine (2 Tim. 4:3-4,
Phil.
1:9-10).

8) Lean on
their own strength instead of putting their full faith in God. They
arrange their lives so they can stay comfortable and avoid risk. They believe
God exists but not enough to walk with bold faith (Luke 12:16-21).